Haven't even had my discovery flight
 

Hi all. I am 33 married with 3 kids. Work in the oilfield currently. Have a 6 figure income, no degree. I have been looking into a potential career change, but from everything I've read it doesn't look promising for my age and and family situation. I am thinking of just working on my license, get at least a CFII and see where I'm at then. I would imagine that alone will take a couple years considering I work full time. That gives me a few years to potentially eliminate debt, and worse case scenario I end up with a pilots license and no job from it but can still fly.. Any thoughts / comments are appreciated.

Age isn’t a problem at all, you’re only 33...that’s young. You’re income is good for making a change if you can get rid of your debt and save for training. You’ll need to start living below your means and saving. The great thing is when you take the pay cut, you’ll be used to living on a reduced amount.

With a wife and 3 kids you need to be very methodical about how you do this. I agree that the slow route would be the way to go in your case.

I was thinking I could just cash flow the training. Worst case, IF i get my annual bonus, and I piecemeal the training instead of doing a school of some sort, I should be able to pay for it that way. With all that being said could my current income be possible at a regional, granted after a few years if I chose to go that path?

No. People will shortly tell you you can, but just look at the pay rates on here. That’s why I said learn to live at a RJ wage scale. If you can live on $45k now, you’ll save a bunch of money and be able to handle the transition.

I was a Field Engineer for Baker Hughes, but I had my degree and flight time pre-oilfield. When I got out of the military nobody was hiring in the aviation world, so I went to work in the oil field. Engineering degree and a CDL got me a job. Knowing how to weld and fix equipment didn't hurt.

It can be done, but you need to save a pretty big nest egg.

If you are rotational, doing your certs, getting a degree knocked out, and building time on you off weeks is doable. That way you have an income while spending money on training. Also look into getting work on off weeks while staying in the oil field.

You're gonna need a degree and that's the longest time wise thing.. Get crackin on that. Look for schools that will take oil field schools/training for credit.

No degree = you stay at regionals forever. It's workable but not ideal.

Do everything debt free.
Look at how many years you need in a pilot position to match your current income.

Thanks for all the advice! I will take my discovery flight and try and make a decision off of that. I don’t see that swaying me away. I plan on doing everything debt free because I have too.


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I roughly make 120000-140000 currently. Can that be had at a regional airline? I know it isn’t fast but how many years in a Pilots position could that take?


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Ten years at a regional (at today's pay and bonus scales) would get you to at least the bottom of that scale, depending on the regional. You can make more by working harder, or serving as a check airman or sim instructor.

But bear in mind two things:

1. Regional pay is higher than it's ever been right now.
2. The regional system exists to keep costs low.

Once the hiring boom and pilot shortage ends (it will), the regional industry will likely "re-adjust" to get it's costs back down. This can mean paycuts, stagnation, or even liquidation... in the later case you get to start over at the new regional as a junior FO getting paid whatever the market conditions of the day dictate. Point being a regional career is not safe or stable. If you have it good at a regional, better be looking over your shoulder...